Center for Real Life Kitchen Design open house to showcase latest in residential kitchens
Virginia Tech will unveil its newly refurbished Center for Real Life Kitchen Design at an open house set for Monday, April 2. The 1,500-square foot center, located in 247 Wallace Hall, features six fully functional residential kitchen designs that reflect a variety of price levels, lifestyles, and use of space for today’s homeowner.
During the open house, the center, part of the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, will be open to the public from noon to 2:30 p.m.
The event will be followed by a lecture entitled “Emotional Rooms” by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz at 3 p.m. in the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Auditorium (corner of Washington Street and Duck Pond Drive).
“We have a completely redesigned gourmet kitchen, which has been outfitted with all new products,” said Kathleen Parrott, professor and certified kitchen design educator. “The center also has a totally new outpost kitchen and a renovated and updated family kitchen.” In addition, the center has a contemporary kitchen, a small starter kitchen, a laundry area, and a home office.
“Our new appliances feature many of the newest cooking, dishwashing and refrigeration technologies with high tech electronic control systems,” said JoAnn Emmel, an associate professor whose expertise includes residential technology and energy management. New products include a microwave drawer, a French door refrigerator with bottom drawer freezer, a coffee center, a high-power multifunctional burner/wok, an induction-cooking module, and a drawer-style dishwasher.
The center has also added a resource center that includes a kitchen and bath design library.
This unique facility is used for both undergraduate and graduate classes. Julia Beamish, a professor and certified kitchen design educator who served as an at-large delegate for the White House Conference on Aging, uses the center to teach about residential space planning, housing for older adults, universal design, and accessibility design.
The center is also home to continuing education programs, such as the popular “Explore Your Dream Kitchen” class, which attracts consumers, kitchen designers, builders, and educators. Two of these two-day courses will be offered in June. An advisory board guides the center, with members representing design firms, manufacturers, professional organizations, and alumni.
Named by House Beautiful magazine as one of “America’s Most Brilliant Decorators” for ten consecutive years, Noriega-Ortiz is recognized as one of the most stylish and influential of today’s interior designers. In his projects, he captures an unusual sense of openness and light through the use of color, materials, architecture, and the unexpected integration of fashion in a rather timeless style. His work has been featured in over a dozen books on design as well as in style and shelter magazines throughout the world. His first book, “Emotional Rooms,” published by Simon and Schuster’s Atria division, will be available in June.
His lecture at Virginia Tech is sponsored by Kohler.
The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences embraces the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The College nurtures intellect and spirit, enlightens decision-making, inspires positive change, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages. It is home to the departments of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management; Communication; English; Foreign Languages and Literatures; History; Human Development; Interdisciplinary Studies; Music; Philosophy; Political Science; ROTC; Science and Technology in Society; Sociology; Theatre Arts; and the School of Education.
